A Dream Comes True
by Ariana Black
Summary: This is an Oddment (my new term for an odd, hardly ever seen pairing) Remus/Ginny Romance. I wanted to see if I could actually write one, when I noticed there weren't any out there. Its really cute, please read it. No flames though.


A/N- This was just a challenge I gave myself Clean 0 pt 0 pt 0 0 0 pt 0 pt MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} 

A/N- This was just a challenge I gave myself.  Playing around with the new character sorting thingie while fan fic was down, I realized there were no Ginny/Remus romance fics, at least not that I could find.  So I decided to write one.

            The first time I saw her, I thought she was beautiful, even for a second year.  Her brother, I found out, was also Harry's best friend.  Of course, this wasn't such a shock.  I mean, how many kids are there with that particular shade of red hair?  But there was something familiar about this little redhead, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  Not at the time anyway.

            I never told James, but when we were in school, I was in love with Lily.  I mean completely and totoally in love.  If she had asked me to spend the night with her, I wouldn't have hesitated for a second.  But really, how _could_ I tell him?  Just walk up to him one day in school and say "James I'm in love with your girlfriend?"  I don't think so.  I doubt it would have gone over well.  It nearly broke my heart when he said they were getting married.  I never let the pain show however, never told either one of them, never told anyone in fact.

            I still dream about her.  Even after all these years, I still see her in my dreams.  That is what hurts most; that I can't let go of her memory.  Part of me still hopes that one day she's going to walk into my house, alive and well.  Of course, that was part of my fantasy about her in school.  That she'd show up suddenly at my house over the summer and confess her love for me.  Then I'd wake up and everything, unfortunately, was back to normal.  Although, sometimes my dreams went a little farther than that before I woke up.  If I was lucky.

            Like I said, I still dream about her.  I dreamed about her the first night I returned to Hogwarts, as a professor this time.  It was something of a disappointment really.  I had been doing so well; I hadn't dreamed about her for a couple months.  But then, that first night, she came to me again, just like always.  As if being a werewolf wasn't enough, now I'm being haunted by the memory of the only girl I ever loved, the one I let go.  So, to escape her memory and the pain and longing it brought with it, I immersed myself completely in my work.  I threw myself headfirst into being the Defense Against The Dark Arts professor.  But even then she haunted me.  Harry's eyes looked exactly like hers.  It was like she was staring at me in class.

            And then there was Ginny.  I noticed the resemblance immediately.  She had the same red hair as Lily.  Her eyes weren't the same, but then, no one had those striking green eyes, except Harry of course.  She was thin like Lily too, and even seemed to move the same way.  Graceful, almost like she were dancing as she walked.  Of course, I shrugged it off.  So what if she looked a little like Lily?  There were lots of redheads I met that reminded me of Lily.  It was just the hair, it didn't mean anything.  

            I didn't last longer than a year at Hogwarts.  I hadn't really expected to.  I was sure when I started that Snape would do everything in his power to get rid of me, and I was right.  So it wasn't a total shock.  Dumbledore didn't seem too surprised either, and I hope he chewed Snape out for it.  Besides, Hogwarts had too many memories.  It reminded me too much of Lily, too much of the friends I had lost.  Of course, I had found one of my friends.  Sirius was innocent.  We just couldn't prove it, but somehow, knowing he was innocent eased some of the pain of the last decade.

            And then, I think it was in Harry's seventh year, Dumbledore somehow convinced me to return to teach at Hogwarts.  The one-year curse of the DADA job had taken its toll.  Dumbledore said he needed someone he could trust; someone who he knew could do the job.  I asked him about Snape, and why he couldn't take the job.  His reply was that if Snape were made DADA teacher, they'd never be able to find another Potions Master to replace him.  No one could replace Snape nearly as well at Potions.  And so, after many tries and many different tactics, including some threats if I remember correctly, Dumbledore finally convinced me to return.

            Of everyone, I think Harry and the other Gryffindors were happiest that I was back.  And truthfully, I was happy to be back.  True, memories still haunted me there, but Hogwarts was the first and only place that I felt like I belonged.  Hogwarts was more my home than anywhere else.  It always would be.  I was surprised at how happy I was to see everyone again.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione especially.  It was like being reunited with my family after many years.  It shocked me at first to see how much they had grown.  They were practically adults now.  Harry was practically a clone of James.  Except for his eyes.  Lily's eyes still stared at me.  And Ginny too had grown into a beautiful young woman.  She reminded me more and more of Lily.

            Really, I can't explain how it happened.  I don't even know myself.  Well, that isn't completely true.  I can tell you the events leading up to it, but as for why I fell in love with her, I don't even know.  But I kept noticing more and more similarities between Ginny and Lily.  Both were excellent at Charms.  Ginny was the only one who even came close to Hermione's talent, at Charms anyway.  And just like Lily, Ginny was horrible at the Dark Arts.  By the end of the first semester, Ginny was in danger of failing, and she knew it.  I couldn't understand it.  She'd been fairly decent at it the last time I had taught her.  Perhaps going through so many teachers had left her behind.  But either way, I kept her after class one day to ask her about it.

            She couldn't understand why she was failing either.  She said she studied it longer than most of her other subjects, trying to understand it, but something kept escaping her.  So I suggested tutoring.  I would tutor her once a week, help her understand, do everything I could to help her pass.  After a few sessions, I saw a remarkable improvement.  Her first test she passed with flying colors.  But even then, she still insisted she needed help.

            Lily still haunted me.  But Lily was the one who helped me see what was happening to me.  It was a very strange dream really.  It was about a month after I'd started tutoring Ginny.  Just like always, Lily came to me, this time while I was in the classroom, preparing for my next class.  She never said a word.  She never had.  I usually woke up as she drew closer.  She had always been just out of reach, just like in real life.  I could get close to her, but never touch her, never have her for my own.  But this time, I didn't wake up.  She walked over to me and touched my face, drawing me out of my thoughts and drawing my attention to her for the first time.

"I've missed you." She said. "I'm glad you came back."

"Oh Lily, I could never leave you." I replied.  Sometimes I really wish I had better writing in my dreams, I say the stupidest things sometimes. "I've loved you for as long as I can remember."

"I love you Remus." She said, leaning over and kissing me.  It seemed to last forever, and yet, when we broke apart, it didn't seem long enough.  When I looked at her again, she had changed.  She wasn't Lily anymore, she was Ginny.  But it was with Lily's voice that she spoke again. 

"I'm glad you came back." She said again.  And then I woke up.

            Needless to say, I was rather nervous around Ginny for quite a while afterwards.  Every time I looked at her, I remembered my dream.  I knew she wasn't Lily, she was better.  Ginny was more even tempered, shyer.  But she was still out of reach.  She was my student, I couldn't love my student.  But I did.  I loved as much, if not more than I had ever loved Lily.  And Ginny was real, not a memory.  But I couldn't act on that love.  Especially once Harry told me that he and Ginny were dating.  I found myself staring at her more and more.  I couldn't stand to lose her.  I'd lost Lily, to James.  I couldn't lose Ginny the same way.  Lucky for me, however, they broke up after about a month.  Even then, I still couldn't have her.  I couldn't tell my student I was in love with them.  Something had to be wrong with me.  The tutoring sessions became more difficult, needless to say.  

            But Ginny had shown remarkable improvement.  Dark Arts was fast becoming one of her best subjects.  Yet she still insisted on keeping the tutoring sessions going.  She really didn't need them, she was one of the best students, but she still insisted on them.

"Ginny, why do you think you need all these sessions?" I finally asked. "You are great at this subject, you don't need my help."

"I...well, I…" she began nervously.

"What is it Ginny?  Something wrong?" I asked, concerned.

"No, its just…I wanted to be near you." She said in almost a whisper.

"You what?" I asked.

"I wanted to be near you." She said again, louder. "I know I'm going to sound foolish, but I love you.  And now that I've said it, maybe you're right.  Maybe we shouldn't continue our tutoring.  You can't feel the same for me."

            Something inside me decided to override my common sense at this point.  Not stopping to think, I leaned over to her and kissed her.  Gently at first, then with more passion as she pulled closer to me.  It was just like in my dream.  But this was real.

"I'm glad you came back." She said at last.  I just smiled. "What is it, love?"

"Nothing.  Its just not everyday a dream comes true." I replied, pulling her to me again.


End file.
